After the emergency
Unfortunately there are natural disasters occurring somewhere in the world, almost every day. The massive oil spill from the Macondo well has only just been fully controlled, Haiti is still struggling to recover after the devastating earthquake and parts of Australia are currently suffering severe floods. Even the UK has been brought to a standstill thanks to the harsh winter weather that has covered the country.
When the news channels first start reporting that a natural disaster is happening, there is always an initial influx of help; doctors and nurses, rescue teams and food supplies are all rushed into the affected area to try and minimise the impact of the earthquake, flood or volcanic eruption. But once the situation is under control and the TV cameras have left, the country still needs to rebuild its infrastructure and return people to their normal lives, and they can suddenly find that the outside help has dried up.
One of the most important things to get re-established is fuel supplies. Depending on the climate of the country involved, the priorities may be home heating oil or fuel for generating electricity. Without electricity hospitals and government cannot operate, water supplies cannot be cleaned; life generally cannot have a hope of returning to normal unless fuel supplies return to normal.
Emergency help is obviously vital to save as many lives as possible and to give those survivors the best possible chance of recovering from the disaster. But these countries, many of which are poor, still need outside help for many months, and even years, before their lives can be anything like normal again. The western nations need to commit more long-term support to countries affected by national disasters and not just depart when the media decide the story is no longer newsworthy. Just because the cameras leave doesn’t mean all the problems have been solved.
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